Ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, we are shining a spotlight on 11 brilliant black businesswomen from around the 海角视频.
The annual event celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women - and underpins a movement for gender equality globally.
The theme for 2021 - #ChoosetoChallenge - is encouraging people to call out gender bias and inequality to create a more inclusive world.
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This year, a report found that companies being run by leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds contribute at least £74bn a year to the 海角视频 economy, with the heads of these firms succeeding against the odds.
We have highlighted just some of the incredible black businesswomen finding success despite the challenges they are facing.
Our list includes rising stars and well-established leaders who’ve forged long and successful careers.
In no particular order...
Dame Sharon White, chair of John Lewis
Dame Sharon White was appointed as the sixth chair of the John Lewis Partnership in 2019, taking over from Sir Charlie Mayfield.
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She was previously chief executive of 海角视频 media regulator Ofcom and has also held a number of roles within the civil service, including second permanent secretary of the Treasury from 2013 to 2015.
A trained economist, Dame Sharon has worked at board level within the Ministry of Justice and the Department for International Development. She was also an adviser to the Prime Minister's policy unit during the Tony Blair years and has worked at the World Bank in Washington DC.
She was appointed a Dame in the 2020 New Year’s Honours list.
Yvonne Bajela, founder of Impact X Capital Partners
Yvonne Bajela is a founder and principal of a 海角视频-based venture capital firm that invests in companies led by underrepresented founders at the seed and Series A stages.
She set up her company in 2019 and was last year named by Forbes as one of 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in finance after investing more than $200m in various startups across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Yvonne is also a committee member of the London Chamber of Commerce, sits on a number of other boards and is a guest lecturer at City University in London.
According to her LinkedIn, she is also an advocate for “female empowerment”.
Kanya King MBE, founder and chief executive of the MOBO Awards
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Kanya King is the chief executive and founder of the MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin).
She was inspired to launch the MOBOs after realising there was a “glaring gap” in the market for a mainstream British ceremony celebrating music influenced and inspired by black artists.
The MOBOs launched in 1996, with Kanya re-mortgaging her house after being unable to find a financial backer. She also struck a deal with Carlton TV (the London television franchise) to broadcast the event.
Today, the MOBOs is a year-round, agenda-setting brand, with the annual awards broadcast on mainstream television. In 2020, the ceremony, which was presented by Maya Jama and Chunkz, was shown on the BBC.
The MOBOs has provided an early platform for British artists including Stormzy, Goldie, Dizzee Rascal, and Emile Sandé.
Ayesha Ofori, founder of Black Property Network
Ayesha Ofori is a multi-award winning investment manager, wealth adviser and property specialist.
Having previously worked for global financial institutions Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs (where she was an executive director), Ayesha is now the managing director of Axion Property Partners and founder of the Black Property Network (BPN).
Ayesha set up the BPN to allow people in the black community to achieve financial and business goals through property investment.
Since its formation in 2018, the group now has more than 700 registered members. Ayesha was awarded the Rising Star award in the entrepreneur category at the Black British Business Awards last year.
Izzy Obeng, founder of Foundervine
Izzy Obeng launched Foundervine, a social enterprise specialising in digital start-up and scale-up acceleration programmes, in 2018.
Her company’s ambition, she says, is to address the social and economic inequality that’s faced by women and young people from under-served communities when starting a business or social enterprise.
Izzy’s business has worked with more than 2,000 entrepreneurs since it launched and last year teamed up with Barclays to launch the Black Founder Accelerator - a 12-week scheme including product development, sales strategy, operations and leadership.
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Kike Oniwinde, co-founder of BYP Network
Kike Oniwinde is the founder and chief executive of job site BYP Network, a platform described by many as the 'LinkedIn for black professionals', which enables ambitious future leaders to network, form meaningful connections with corporations and access to coveted job opportunities.
As well as finding career matches for its network of 50,000 members, the site works with large companies to reduce bias in the recruitment process.
It counts Adobe, Airbnb, Sky, and Lloyds Bank among its partners and has an app that has been downloaded in 65 countries.
Kike is one of the Forbes 30 under 30, Maserati 100 innovators, Top 100 海角视频 BAME Leaders in Tech and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
Dame Heather Rabbatts, chair of Four Communications Group
Dame Heather Rabbatts first came to prominence in the 1980s when she became the youngest chief executive of a local authority as head of Lambeth Council.
The Jamaican-born British solicitor, businesswoman and broadcaster was a governor of the BBC from 1999 to 2001, before moving to Channel 4.
In 2006, she was appointed as the new executive deputy chair of Millwall Football Club, and was the first woman to be appointed as a director of The Football Association in 2011.
Dame Heather was appointed chair of 海角视频 marketing and communications agency Four Communications in 2020. She is also the chair of the remuneration committee of 海角视频 construction and infrastructure business Kier.
Gisela Abbam, chair of the British Science Association
Gisela Abbam became the first black chair of the British Science Association when she was appointed in 2019 - the same year she was named Black British Businessperson of the Year at the Black British Business Awards.
She is also founder and managing director of OTGA Management Consultancy and has held a number of other director-level roles, including at Abt Associates - a top global research firm.
Before joining Abt, Gisela was the inaugural global executive director for General Electric's healthcare government affairs and policy department. She has worked with governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN and World Bank to improve health outcomes. She has also published more than 45 white papers on various public policy issues.
Gisela is also a non-executive director of Everywoman 海角视频 and was named as one of the 100 Women to Watch in the Cranfield Female FTSE Board Report 2020
Marti Burgess, partner of Bevan Brittan
Marti Burgess is a lawyer and entrepreneur who has been advising SMEs on corporate and commercial law for more than 20 years.
She is currently a partner at national law firm Bevan Brittan but has also held roles at Gregg Latchams, Metcalfes and Humphreys & Co.
She is also the co-owner of Bristol music venue Lakota, which she bought with her brother in 1994. She remains on the board and continues to help with strategic direction but no longer has any day-to-day responsibilities for the venue.
Marti also sits on the board of Bristol Cultural Development Partnership and the Bristol City Council's Economy Board where she represents ‘Bristol @ Night’ - an advisory panel set up to bring together people working in the city’s night time economy.
She is also the chair of St Pauls Carnival CIC and the Black South West Network - a black-led infrastructure organisation that works with black and minority ethnic communities in the South West.
In 2020, she was appointed as the first black member of Bristol's Society of Merchant Venturers.
Rachael Corson and Joycelyn Mate, Afrocenchix
Rachael Corson and Joycelyn Mate are the co-founders of Afrocenchix, the first afro hair product launched in all nine of supermarket Whole Foods' 海角视频 stores.
The duo met in university and spotted a gap in the market for hair products for black women made with mostly natural ingredients and began formulating a hair oil themselves.
While getting their company off the ground, they won the top prize in the business venture category at the 2018 WeWork London Creator Awards.
As well as securing £275,000 they won the chance to compete for $1m in the WeWork Global Creator Awards in Los Angeles.
In the finals, Rachael pitched the business to a panel of judges, including rapper Sean 'Diddy’ Combs, actor Ashton Kutcher and US venture capitalist Kirsten Green. Afrocenchix was awarded the second runner-up prize of $180,000.
Do you run a black-owned business or know someone who does? Email hannah.baker@reachplc.com and share your story.